


the empty spaces the dead left behind

by crookedspoon



Series: Tumblr Prompts [21]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Angst, Guilt, M/M, POV Jason Todd, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 12:52:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15606699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedspoon/pseuds/crookedspoon
Summary: They each have their fair share of scars that mark the times they were too slow, too stupid, or simply too unfortunate. These scars invite stories of their origins, ones Dick and Jason have recounted many times, yet they also help to obscure the real trauma beneath.





	the empty spaces the dead left behind

**Author's Note:**

> For #7 "The bad thing that no one talks about" from [this prompt list](https://crookedspoonfic.tumblr.com/post/176528082265/joufancyhuh-yourlocalpriestess-and-i-have-come) and #496 "Laughter" at slashthedrabble

"That one's a keeper," Jason says as he dabs the gash on Dick's back with alcohol-soaked gauze. 

Dick doesn't answer, nor does he flinch, which tells Jason everything he needs to know: Dick is hung up on the failure to save someone. That hurts him worse than what amounts to nothing more than a scratch in the grand scheme of injuries they've sustained.

Part of Jason loves how compassionate Dick is, how he cares about other people's well-being before his own. Another part resents him for it. because the only thing Jason fears is the thought of Dick not coming home one day. 

It could so readily become a reality. Just one wrong step, one wrong decision, and it would be Dick instead of whoever's on his mind right now.

Jason has long since accepted that they can't save everyone, but Dick insists that's no excuse to stop trying. It's nothing they talk about in words – their attitudes reveal enough – not because it would devolve into a fight about principles and arbitrary rules and lines they don't draw, but because it wouldn't. They both know nothing's ever black and white, and when it comes down to it, Dick can swing just as far over the line as Jason can. 

The only difference is that Jason loses less sleep over it.

It used to be that much easier, that much clearer, when they were young and naive, and had Bruce shielding them from the ugliness of human nature as best he could. Not that it saved them in the end.

They each have their fair share of scars that mark the times they were too slow, too stupid, or simply too unfortunate. These scars invite stories of their origins, ones Dick and Jason have recounted many times, yet they also help to obscure the real trauma beneath.

Jason jokes about his own death, because humor – however morbid – is how he reclaims ownership over that part of his brief and interrupted life. It doesn't hurt that it annoys the hell out of Bruce, who sees Jason's death as his personal failure. And well he should.

Yet there are layers here that even Jason doesn't often think about. His mother, for one thing, and how he'd believed that acknowledging their consanguineous relation would somehow magically make up for his abandonment. He prefers to direct his anger towards Bruce for not avenging his death, because Bruce is available and because he makes it so easy.

Plus, it's nice to know that he can make the big scary Bat uncomfortable. Beats being harangued for misconduct, which in B's book covers everything from smoking to running a red light to looking the other way when someone deserving gets theirs.

Because truth is, Bruce has nothing to be sanctimonious about. His hands are as dirty as anyone's. People are dead as a direct result of their actions, and no amount of sermonizing is going to change that.

If only Dick were able see it the same way.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Negative Space" by Luljeta Lleshanku.


End file.
